Covid-19: 40% of affected healthcare workers had long covid, and a quarter still had symptoms after a year: BMJ

[Mij]

August 20, 2026

Four in ten healthcare workers worldwide who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 during the pandemic developed long covid, and a quarter still had symptoms after a year, a report has found.

The report by the NHS Race and Health Observatory examined numerous global studies to assess the medium term and long term effects of the disease on healthcare workers. It looked at the demographic, clinical, occupational, and sociocultural factors associated with long covid risk, particularly focusing on ethnicity, migration status, and vaccination history.

The longitudinal, mixed methods analysis included a systematic review of global research studies, survey data from 11 513 UK healthcare workers, and qualitative interviews with 42 healthcare workers, their managers, and support networks.

The analysis, produced by the observatory in collaboration with University College London (UCL) and the universities of Leicester and Nottingham,1 examined data from 6481 healthcare workers across 28 …

 

[Mij]

Covid policy tradeoffs… unless/ until we acknowledge that “harm” wasn’t only about whether or not you lived or died…

 

[hotblack]

I may be being cynical today but what are the odds that those that had long covid and recovered who are thankfully in the majority are now convinced that their ‘path to recovery’ is something anyone can do if they want it hard enough or do whatever it is they think they did to recover. Meanwhile the unlucky minority who are not recovering will be sidelined or told they should do x or y to recover.

I’d hoped that one positive of the pandemic would be a positive societal turning point in various ways but too much of what has happened since has made be doubt it. We’re just too good at repeating the mistakes of the past.